Nadine Dorries Singled Out For Attack In Tory 1922 Committee

UPDATE: On Friday night Nadine Dorries is due to appear on BBC One's "Have I Got News For You" as a panellist. Which should be fun.

Tory MP Nadine Dorries was roundly criticised by her fellow backbench Tory MPs on Wednesday night for her outspoken criticism of David Cameron and George Osborne as "arrogant posh boys".

Her recent comments were flayed by several of her fellow backbenchers during a private meeting of the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs. Criticism of her recent media appearances particularly came from those MPs fighting marginal seats.

"I wish she would just shut the f**k up," is how one backbench Tory MP put it to HuffPost after the meeting, where several Tory MPs made no secret of their annoyance with her recent interviews. Despite David Cameron telling the Commons on Wednesday that Nadine Dorries was a "close friend" of his, it's obvious that the MP for the safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire has been a niggling annoyance to Number 10.

Nadine Dorries has given two interviews in as many weeks where she's personally attacked the prime minister and chancellor for being out of touch. Those interviews have been gleefully spread by the media and on social networks.

On Wednesday night Tory backbenchers were keen to make clear that they found Dorries an irritant. Around half a dozen Tory MPs from super-marginal constituencies were said to be angry during the private meeting of party backbenchers about the dissent within the party.

"It's alright to raise issues in the right place, but to take to the airwaves like this is just damaging us," one Tory MP told Huffpost. "These MPs are just making mischief and it's alright for them because they've all got safe seats. They won't have the battle at the next election like we will."

Nadine Dorries is not alone in being attacked for alleged disloyalty. Peter Bone, the MP for Wellingborough, and Philip Hollobone, the MP for Kettering are also seen as "disloyal" MPs who've spent too much time voicing their upset with coalition policies. And Stewart Jackson, the former ministerial aide who criticised the coalition on Radio 4 on Friday lunchtime, was also criticised.

Other more senior MPs like John Redwood and David Davis are seen as being "close to the line" in their public comments about coalition policy.

Some of the MPs singled out for attack by their fellow backbenchers have safe Tory seats which they can expect to retain whatever the political weather. But MPs like Bone and Hollobone have marginal seats, and this confounds northern Tory MPs who feel they are being undermined by colleagues who have just as much to lose at the ballot box as they do.

Privately many backbench Tories share Dorries' concerns. What they find offensive is the readiness of people like her to attack the party leadership in a public manner. There is no suggestion that the 1922 found the Tory leadership at fault, despite a fairly lukewarm response to the Queen's Speech among the media.

There is clearly a huge amount of anger among Tories in marginal seats, though. They feel they have enough of a struggle to sell their elitist leader and chancellor to voters, without their fellow backbenchers sticking the knife in.